-2.5% to US GDP
Explaining the joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/why-blood-makes-up-over-2poi... That said, I'm sure I recently saw some blog-post about how the 2-2.5% amounts are significantly overblown because that's counting export-categories of products can sometimes contain human blood derivatives as an ingredient, rather than straight-up RBCs/plasma. Hmmm, nothing yet on a quick Google search, but that doesn't mean as much…
Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#12Interesting to see. There's been some other efforts in this space, from blood products derived to chemically derived (e.g. perflurocarbons, which carry many multiples of what hemoglobin can carry, oxygen-wise). There's definitely a need for a safe, shelf stable blood substitute. Though, I'd argue that this isn't artificial blood , it's artificially replacing only the oxygen carrying role of blood -- there's nothing i…
You can see my top-level comment for more context, but I've seen other products in this space called "oxygen therapeutics" for exactly this reason. They're not really blood, they're an oxygen delivery system. It seemed like a pedantic distinction when I first heard the term, but I think you make some good points about why the distinction is meaningful.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#13The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing. Blood-derived synthetic. Still cool, but continues to…
Apparently their first target is soon-to-expire donor blood erythrocytes — which makes this essentially a (pretty major) scalability improvement in how far existing donor blood goes.
However, that being said: hemoglobin’s just a protein. Recombinant hemoglobin isn’t overly challenging to produce — we do it already. (Currently mostly animal hemoglobin, for vegan meat — but it’s no different to produce human hemoglobin.) We don’t bother with synthesizing human hemoglobin because there’s (until now) no way to go from having a protein to having useful cells serving an erythrocytic function. This research changes that — and so will strongly motivate demand for such production. I would bet money that, 5–10 years out, you’ll be able to buy bags — even drums — of recombinant human hemoglobin from any biopharma supplier.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#14Since it's extracted from expired blood we could still theoretically be living in a "Daybreakers" timeline. ;)
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#15[flagged]
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#16Biopure was a company doing something similar in the US. They imploded in the early 2000s, but they had created an "oxygen therapeutic" (blood substitute) by isolating hemoglobin based oxygen carrying molecules FROM COW BLOOD! The fact that they weren't using whole red blood cells meant the product was typeless, room temp stable, and better at perfusing around arterial blockages and into tissue since the molecules we…
One more anecdote. WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency, had to specifically address using hemoglobin based blood substitutes for doping.
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/scientific-research/de...
This class of products is room temperatures stable, and typeless, and it increases oxygen carrying capacity basically immediately. You can imagine how useful that would be for something like a Tour De France team. Keep a half dozen units of fake blood in your team bus. No special equipment. No rigorous temp control. You can give any unit to any one of your athletes without worrying about compatibility. You can administer it on race day, eliminating any chance of being caught in the runup to your event.
Obviously Biopure condemned off-label use of their product for blood doping, but behind closed doors they were super proud that it was seen as effective enough to be called out by name by WADA. No publicity is bad publicity and all that.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Explaining the joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/why-blood-makes-up-over-2poi... That said, I'm sure I recently saw some blog-post about how the 2-2.5% amounts are significantly overblown because that's counting export-categories of products can sometimes contain human blood derivatives as an ingredient, rather than straight-up RBCs/plasma. Hmmm, nothing yet on a quick Google search, but that doesn't mean as much…
https://dynomight.net/blood/
That's the one, thanks.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#18The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing. Blood-derived synthetic. Still cool, but continues to…
Apparently their first target is soon-to-expire donor blood erythrocytes — which makes this essentially a (pretty major) scalability improvement in how far existing donor blood goes. However, that being said: hemoglobin’s just a protein. Recombinant hemoglobin isn’t overly challenging to produce — we do it already. (Currently mostly animal hemoglobin, for vegan meat — but it’s no different to produce human hemoglobin…
> Currently mostly animal hemoglobin
Nope. They're making _plant_ hemoglobin ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leghemoglobin ) to stay vegan.
Yes, I was also surprised that freaking plants have hemoglobin. But apparently, legume plants use it to create the oxygen-depleted environment for nitrogen fixing bacteria to work.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently their first target is soon-to-expire donor blood erythrocytes — which makes this essentially a (pretty major) scalability improvement in how far existing donor blood goes. However, that being said: hemoglobin’s just a protein. Recombinant hemoglobin isn’t overly challenging to produce — we do it already. (Currently mostly animal hemoglobin, for vegan meat — but it’s no different to produce human hemoglobin…
> Currently mostly animal hemoglobin Nope. They're making _plant_ hemoglobin ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leghemoglobin ) to stay vegan. Yes, I was also surprised that freaking plants have hemoglobin. But apparently, legume plants use it to create the oxygen-depleted environment for nitrogen fixing bacteria to work.
The way evolution can converge on symbiotic relationships like this always amazes me.
Re: Japanese scientists develop artificial blood compatible with all blood types
#20Biopure was a company doing something similar in the US. They imploded in the early 2000s, but they had created an "oxygen therapeutic" (blood substitute) by isolating hemoglobin based oxygen carrying molecules FROM COW BLOOD! The fact that they weren't using whole red blood cells meant the product was typeless, room temp stable, and better at perfusing around arterial blockages and into tissue since the molecules we…
One more anecdote. WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency, had to specifically address using hemoglobin based blood substitutes for doping. https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/scientific-research/de... This class of products is room temperatures stable, and typeless, and it increases oxygen carrying capacity basically immediately. You can imagine how useful that would be for something like a Tour De France team. Keep a…
They didn't lost long enough to be an official sponsor & exclusive partner of the Thiel backed doping games.